§ Major BIRCHALLasked the Minister of Labour what are the conditions under which a friendly society may undertake the distribution of unemployment benefit; and whether those conditions render it almost impossible for such societies to carry out their duties successfully under Section 17 of the Unemployment Insurance Act?
§ Sir M. BARLOWThe main conditions under which a friendly society may make an arrangement under Section 17 of the Act are laid down in the Act itself. I am sending to my hon. and gallant Friend copies of the Regulations and of a model form of arrangement and other documents prepared in connection with arrangements under this Section. I have no reason for anticipating that the conditions laid down by the Act and Regulations, which are essential to satisfactory administration, will render it impossible for friendly societies to administer State Benefit successfully.
§ Sir H. NIELDasked the Minister of Labour whether he is aware that official literature, consisting of several separate circulars or forms purporting to relate to the scheme of unemployment insurance, has been sent out without any care or discrimination, and that as many as six and more addressed envelopes containing these papers have been delivered at most of the sets of professional chambers in the Inns of Court where their applicability is open to question; and whether he will take steps to ensure greater care and economy in the issue of printed matter from the Ministry and its subordinate Departments?
§ Sir M. BARLOWI can assure my hon. Friend that all possible care was taken to avoid waste of stationery consistent with the necessity of giving wide publicity to the provisions of the Unemployment Insurance Act. I am not aware that more than one set of documents has been sent to any employer, except where a larger supply was required by him for distribution or where his name appeared several1396W times in various capacities in the Directories consulted by the Department. In the case of the professional chambers referred to by my hon. Friend, the course adopted was to send a set of documents to each barrister appearing in the Directory as the occupant of a set of chambers. Naturally this resulted in most cases in several letters being delivered at each set of chambers. This might, no doubt, have been avoided by some sort of detailed inquiry, but neither the time nor the staff was available for this process, and if it had been attempted the total cost of distributing the documents would have been greatly increased.